A new member of Darwin museum collection – a taxidermy mount of humpback salmon

(Oncorhynchus gorbuscha Walbaum, 1792)

The fish taxidermy mounts collection has recently been replenished by a new piece. The museum’s taxidermist Valentina Kubanina has skillfully made a taxidermy mount of humpback salmon, brought from the Russian Far East.

Humpback salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. It is the smallest, yet the most fast growing and abundant of the Pacific salmon.

In the ocean, humpback salmon’s back is light blue or blue-green, sides are bright silver with white belly. After returning to their spawning streams, their coloring changes to pale grey on the back with yellowish-white belly (although some turn an overall dull green color). As with all salmon, in addition to the dorsal fin, they also have an adipose fin between dorsal and caudal fins. The fish is characterized by a white mouth, no teeth on the tongue, large oval-shaped black spots on the back, a v-shaped tail. During their spawning migration, males develop a pronounced humped back, hence their nickname "humpies". In average humpback salmon weights about 2 kg. The maximum recorded size was 76 cm. and 7 kg.

The humpback salmon is less than other species of the salmon family attached to their home, therefore it can travel hundreds and thousands kilometers away from the place where it originated.

The humpback salmon is coldwater fish with a preferred temperature of 10°C. The temperature of 25C is considered lethal. The native range of the species is in the Pacific and Arctic coastal waters and rivers.

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